Monday
Sep012014
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill IPPR does climate and energy
Sep 1, 2014 Climate: Parliament Climate: WG2 Energy: grid A reader brought to my attention a new report on climate and energy policy by Labour's favourite thinktank, the IPPR.
The report was funded by the European Climate Foundation, with a steering group including represenatatives of green NGOs like Greenpeace and renewable energy investors like BNEF. With a background like that, nobody would expect that the report would make lots of dodgy claims and thinly veiled demands for transfers of money to those involved, would they? Readers can make up their own minds, but here are a few things that I noticed:
- We have Julia Slingo's infamous quote about last winter's floods ("All the evidence suggests a link to climate change"), the one that the Met Office itself would not defend.
- For some strange reason, the authors have decided to show a temperature graph that stops at 2010.
- The report cites weather-related disasters of "a record $130 billion", misleading readers into thinking that this figure is climate related.
- The report cites a drop in solar PV costs of 54%, misleading readers into thinking this was due to technological advances when in fact it was due to cutbacks in subsidies leading to oversupply.
- The report calls for a doubling of investment in green energy (Will £10 billion be enough for you, BNEF?)
- Strangely, the report mentions that share prices of traditional utilities have fallen. They don't mention that this is because people are forced by law to buy from their "green" competitors, a policy that has the full approval of the authors.
- The report calls for spending to be focused on small-scale, inefficient technologies, particularly onshore wind. (This, and an increase in subsidies, seems to be the sum total of the report's ideas about how to deal with the impending capacity crunch)
- The report says lots of "green" jobs will be created, thus proving that such technologies are expensive.
- There is no mention of the impending capacity crunch.
It would seem then that a vote for Labour is a vote to have one's pocket picked.
Reader Comments (29)
Here's the second paragraph of the report:
It's interesting that the IPPR concedes that the argument may be compelling.Unfortunately,every political party is only part of a PR machine. They have little detailed knowledge or background on any subject and base the reaction on focus groups. You end up with a numpty like David Cameron who spouts melifluously on things that he does not have the vaguest clue about. I suggest you read the biography of Clement Attlee to see how things have changed. Mind you, I think Cameron could well be kicked out by the end of the month if Scotland votes YES.
Robin:
Indeed. But with no relevant numbers. Do they give any later in the report? What can it mean, in numerical terms, that President Xi is 'now taking climate change seriously'? I'm sure you can help them with that. :)
At the end of the meeting, all those in attendance were asked to leave their bank details.
The IPPR is one of the BBC's favourite organisations for the last word on any topic. I wonder why - surely the BBC is not biased and full of Graunid readers?
To be fair, they do give us some choices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHOhiQM3Ctk
Pointman
"It has been known for years that climate change is happening and is man-made. The latest scientific evidence reiterates these facts, and there is growing concern that the world is heading for a catastrophic temperature rise of 4°C."
With an introduction like that, the rest of the document is guaranteed to be junk because it's based on false premises. And since there's no references in the document to any of the "facts" it quotes, it's impossible to validate anything. But then, I guess that its intended audience wouldn't need to validate them.
And in other energy related news the European Union is to impose economic sanctions against Russia in response to Vladimir Putin,s aggressive military intervention the Ukraine.So Russian house holds will be starved of western consumer Underpowered Vacuum Cleaners and other electrical appliances.Seems just like the old austerity days of the Cold War Soviet Union .No that will be Democracy loving Western Europe instead.
And in other news today William Hill, Ladbrooks ,Betfair Paddy Power, Bet Fred 360 .Com have put Douglas Carswell as firm favorite to retain his old seat of Clacton making him the first ever elected Westminster UKIP MP we hope.
How ironic the Nobel Peace prize winning European Union almost manages to start World War 3 and that once helped defeat communism in the Soviet Union is now forcing substandard underpowered electrical goods and withholding essential energy supplies on its own peoples in the name of political dogma.And they then have the cheek to call Vladimir Putin a dictator.
Anyone one on Bishophill seen a second hand 240 Volt Vacuum Cleaner on Ebay lately.
"President Xi"
I do hope he has a cricket team...
I am afraid the Green Taliban has been infultrating the Labour Party for years, you only have to listen to the hysterical nonsense from Maria Eagle MP. Clearly, a vote for Labour is a vote for further Green contraints and a damaged economy. The Greens do not care about the consquencies of suicidal policies (no matter how meaningless they are to the rest of the world) and how many poor suffer, they are saving the planet!
It is certain that the Muppet Office and Academia will come to their aid and "homogenise" the "data" to explain the coming "catatrophe".
I am sure if Ed wins, Uncle Putin will give him and the Green NGO's, Hero of the Soviet Union medals for helping the Russian Federation!
and it starts in 1979 - just at the start of some warming. And instead of plotting the monthly values, annual values are used with lines joining the dots. Should really be a bar chart if you do that. And it's not a graph of temperature but of temperature evolution - whatever that is. There is also the question as to whether all the different temperature records should be used - as if they were independent of one another. UAH and RSS mainly use the same satellite data. GISS, NCDC and HadCRU use each others land/sea records as required.
There was another graph last week which plotted a line between decadal averages rather than show the actual annual or monthly values. Perhaps there ought to be a monthly prize for the most 'creative' graph climate scientists have published. It seems to be about the only genuine skill they have.
Cheers,
Nick.
It would seem then that a vote for Labour is a vote to have one's pocket picked.
Is 'pocket picked' some horrible euphemism that I've missed having not lived in the UK for some time?
Or wallet thinned
Talking of Carwell if he does win his By Election ( good luck by the way ) and there is a massive swing to UKIP .
Right Wing Fascist parties winning all over Europe how long before the Greens are forced to play their race card .
Blame Climate Change for ISIS apparently there's a drought in northern Iraq radicalizing Sunni Farmers into joining the ISIS overspill from Syria total bollocks obviously.
With Tea Party candidates winning lots of states and primaries in America.
The majority of Democrats in Washington are now saying that Climate Change is a bigger threat than Terrorism more bollocks that don't wash with the American public.
Latest scare story is that AlQiada is preparing to launch its next attack on US soil from Mexico. Just as Obama has given a nationwide amnesty on illegal Latino immigrants in the US .
What with Gay Marriage ,the US economy faltering ,state meddling with gun control Obamacare and tragic James Foley and the President,s Golf Course antics the Tea Party is on the rise and its immigration and security not the environment that is the main issue.
So the Greens will need to jump in quick and blame Climate Change too for mass immigration "too hot to grow anything then have a war and flee over the border simples".
Rather unfortunately its civil, social, religious, strive and draconian state control and access to and high fuel prices that cause foreign wars and poverty not the weather.
Some more interesting phrasing - this time from the box concerned with "Solutions" (to "The International Challenge"):
I don't think it's even been UK policy to specify that interesting proviso in its climate negotiations. Assuming "sufficient ambition" means that major economies (including China) must accept binding obligations to reduce emissions, that's not going to happen. If the IPCC is at all alert to what's happening in international negotiations, they must know that.Or perhaps, like so many other true believers, they live in dreamland.
Are we meant to be alarmed into headstrong actions by a threat of a global mean temperature 4C rise over say the next 100 years? That would be at an average rate of 0.003C per month. Every year, year after year, we see a rise in this computed temperature at a rate of nearly 0.7C per month between January and July, and we see nothing extraordinary happening in our climate system. No tipping-points passed for example. And we cool down again at the same rate between July and January every year, without 'catastrophe' stalking our grand little planet. According to this NOAA source, the average global mean temperature for January in the 20th century is 12.0C, and the average for July is 15.8C.
If our CO2 is indeed a stick with which we poke the climate system, it is quite a floppy and gentle twig compared with that of the bi-annual jolt we get from our orbit. It is not surprising that we have found it difficult to detect the effect of our stick in such phenomena as hurricanes, precipitation, ice of various kinds, and so on, including the temperatures we ourselves experience. Nor, given the logarithmic relationship presumed for temperature & CO2 changes, the clear evidence of GCMs running hot, the variation due to other causes, and the sheer complexity of the system, would it be at all surprising if this difficulty were to continue for at least the next 100 years.
Robin Guenier
You should know by now that these zealots are living in some make-believe Medieval Utopia where modern technology and medicine are not needed! Gaia will provide for us!
Good deconstruction of the think tank that did not think but ill-judged comments here sometimes soften your blows. eg what kind of twisted thinking tells anyone that the EU is in any way responsible for Putins aggression in Ukraine? Maybe they caused his aggression in Chechnya and Georgia too. Or maybe the EU is responsible for killing all those journalists and political opponents. Alas, more likely some folk just like to pin everything bad on the EU - including all the climate change crap that was nurtured mostly in dear old Blighty, thanks in no small part to Margaret Thatchers reign of rampant de-industrialisation, unemployment, anti-coal, anti-nuclear and pro-casino-capitalism.
"eg what kind of twisted thinking tells anyone that the EU is in any way responsible for Putins aggression in Ukraine?"
Why "twisted thinking"? The EU has been hard at work trying woo the Ukraine for several years. But anyone with the slightest appreciation of the Russian view of things should recognise that they retain a stong desire to maintain influence over their neighbours, and should also know that as just when most EU countries have been cutting defence spending, Russia has been doing the opposite. Sorry, but anyone who can't recognise that the EU has played a part in this mess must have his head in the sand.
JamesG
I think you need to do a little research on what the EU have been doing
for the last twelve months or more in the Ukraine. (follow the money)
CharmingQuark: yes I do really. You might be interested to note that I've just made a directly relevant comment here.
JamesG
This might help.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/05/us-eu-ukraine-support-idUSBREA240V020140305
Bribery at its very best.
Labour's leftwing favourite thinktank, the IPPR. They have many followers.
I recently took a look at the list of supporters of nottip.org.uk, all the trade unions are mentioned and not one is for leaving the EU. Friends of the Earth are quite prominent in the list and they are funded by the EU.
All the anti-frackers were listed, as was ' Campaign against Climate Change'. Read their booklet 'One Million Climate Jobs' which is re-launching this September (www.climate-change-jobs.org/node/14)
It never ceases to amaze me that trade unionists back such a load of job destroyng crap. But then the National Climate Service (NCS) funded by the Taxpayer will mean direct government employment ensures secure, flexible, permanent jobs for the promised Million.
So will Miliband be lobbied into adopting the National Climate Service (NCS) with 'One Million Climate Jobs'
promised? Look out for it in his manifesto, along with his promise to freeze prices and decarbonise the electricity industry by 2030.
No doubt he will start to implement the DECC's plans (hidden agenda) to phase out the use of natural gas for household heating and cooking to meet CO2 targets.
pesadia: A humanitarian aid package does not constitute bribery. The reason for the aid was that Yanukovich had emptied the treasury before leaving and searches for where the loot has gone are ongoing. The alternative was mass starvation.
DaveS: I note that 'played a part' is a significant ratchetting back from 'causing'. The Maidan revolt started because the majority of the people wanted to join the EU - mainly because they were fed up of Putin and his Donetsk criminal chums running the place and Putin actively preventing it was the last straw for them. Of course Putin doesn't want Ukraine to join the EU but it has more to do with his Stalinesque, Russian imperialist mindset than any common sense or border protection. Nobody in the EU or Ukraine wants conflict: They only want normal trade between Ukraine, EU and Russia, bringing prosperity and decent, non-criminal governance. The conflict started and continues only because of Putin staging an overt, sophisticated imperialist invasion without even having the guts to admit it. He plays you apologists like a fiddle!
The main, possibly even the only, good thing about the EU, regardless of all its other failings is the prevention of petty European wars. It. That was the real reason for it's existence - and war is the costliest thing imaginable so you should cut them some slack for their overspending on peaceable activities. The Yugo crisis would not have happened if they had all been in Europe. Now that they mostly are, war there is inconceivable. Hence to pretend the EU foments wars is profoundly idiotic. If Putin had a heart attack tomorrow the crisis would all be over and Russians would be as welcome to trade as they always have been. I am as pro-Russian as I am pro-Ukrainian. It is an absolute tragedy that this fool has set them in conflict for no apparent reason beyond megalomania.
In the meantime, its p*ssing down here in Cambridge...
Dam back luck sherlock1, its crrentlydown to 21degs here in Rome, although it did rain for an hour just after breakfast this modning.
What petty European Wars has the EU stopped as i cant remember off hand?
"It would seem then that a vote for Labour is a vote to have one's pocket picked".
So what's new?
What is utterly inexcusable is Labour's institutional arrogance- believing that it and it alone, can spend the Public's money more wisely than anyone else.
JamesG
I am not defending Victor Yanokovych, I am in contact with the daughter of ukranian politician
and I know just how corrupt the government was.
However, he was democratically elected and his downfall was financed by the EU an USA.
"Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs and a seasoned diplomat, made the amateurish mistake of discussing with the American ambassador to Ukraine, over an open phone line, who should and should not be in a post-Yanukovych government"
Sounds like they were discussing post natal arrangements to me.
Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs and a seasoned diplomat, made the amateurish mistake of discussing with the American ambassador to Ukraine, over an open phone line, who should and should not be in a post-Yanukovych government.